Fluoride intake and its association with dental caries and fluorosis.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the mean fluoride (F) intake from diet by children between 2007 and 2012, and determine their association with the developing of dental caries and fluorosis.
Methods: All participants were withdrawn in 2006 from 10 public day care centers from Caracas, Venezuela and samples from foods and beverages were collected from 2007 to 2012 (water F=0.2 mg/L; fluoridated salt=180-220mgF/kg salt). From a total of 139 children selected in 2007, 33 (24%) completed the study in 2012 21 (64%) males and 12 (36%) females. Total fluoride intake from food and beverages was determined during three days using the "duplicate plate technique" and analyzed by the microdiffusion method of Taves (1968), modified by Rojas-Sanchez et. al. (1999). A fluoride ion selective electrode was used for the fluoride determination. In 2003, children aged 8 to 10 years-old underwent a dental examination by a calibrated examiner (MM), using the Radike criteria modified by Acevedo et. al. (2005), and dental fluorosis using Dean Index (1942).
Results: The prevalence of dental caries and dental fluorosis were 36% and 33%, respectively. The mean F intake from diet for 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 335.2±182.5; 458.5±968.5; 242.2±98.1 and 262.1±231.9 µgF/day. The defs and def were 1.5±3.2 and 0.9±1.8, respectively, and DMFS and DMFT were 0.8±1.3 and 0.7±1.0, respectively. When data were anlayzed using Student t test and U Mann-Whitney we observed association between fluoride intake from foods and from diet for both dental caries indexes for the first and third year of the study (p<0.05) only. The intake of fluoride from beverages in 2010 was associated with the presence of dental fluorosis (p=0.022) in the studied children.
Conclusions: The results of this study showed a low fluoride intake from diet by children for the first and third year of the evaluation which may constitute a clear risk for the developing of dental caries, however, the higher intake of fluoride from beverages in the fourth year of the study may be a risk factor for the developing of dental fluorosis in the studied population. This study was supported by the CDCH Grant #1006-6555-2006 and Colgate Palmolive Co., Venezuela.